After being around gaming for almost two decades now some things really bother me with where things are headed and how communities have shaped up.

I feel like competitive games at the e-sports level are something like gambling in Las Vegas with all the issues that come with that.

Some of the issues that work against the average person when it comes to e-sports:

• Gatekeeping
• Corporate endorsements and sponsorships
• Political platforms
• Addiction
• Neurotic behavior
• Loss of self-esteem offline
• Misleading prize pools

Loss of self-esteem offline and neurotic behavior: I have seen multiple programs in my area position themselves as an “e-sports” program which is strange. Traditional sports have several advantages including the physical benefits of staying in shape along with making friends. Not that making friends with e-sports is impossible, but the interaction is going to be significantly reduced. Much like with professional sports, how many of these “e-sports” players are going to make a living doing this?

Few seem to address how e-sports are only relevant per-game and per-developer. This means if development is cut or support is dropped, you now have no “e-sports” to fall back on if you only played one or two games which already would be a major time sink in of itself.

This could also lead to a breakdown in communities where younger people are spending insane time behind closed doors gaming their lives away.

Addiction: I used to play a game where speed-running is common place. One of the speed-runners known in the community decided to quit and his reasons for doing so were quite alarming. He said the game was consuming too much of his time and was taking advantage of his personality with not being able to play the game in moderation. He said the game make you feel JUST good enough to keep playing for hours on end.

The average person when I meet them in every day situations seems to consume e-sports like other pro leagues such as the NBA. It is something that doesn’t really support their own overall well-being and sort of abuses the consumer.

Families need to start making better decisions when it comes to their approach on gaming. Video games are highly predatory at this point in general.

There is also the disturbing issue of why these game developers are making these games so addicting and predatory.